Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2

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een officially announced at the meeting of Congress the state of the negotiations with both powers was sufficiently well understood to enable Washington wi

have been already enumerated were detailed in a succinct statement, at the close of which he mentioned the British

tate of enmity or misunderstanding, opens a wide field for consoling and gratifying reflections. If by prudence and moderation on every side, the extinguishment of all the causes of external discord which have heretofore menaced ou

gton concluded with observing: "Temperate discussion of the important subjects that may arise in the course of the session, and mutual forbearance where

reported which echoed back

with Great Britain, and it was expected that their answer to the speech of the President would indicate their sentiments on a subject which continued to agitate the who

that it was not true that the confidence of the people in the President was undiminished; that by a recent transa

l, and the opinion that the confidence of the people in their chief magistr

itted. This motion succeeded and, two members being added to the committee, an answer wa

was alluded to in terms which, though not directly expressive of dis

s a message, accompanying certain communications from the French government which wer

ered to the president of that body, with his credentials, two letters addressed by the Secretary of State to the committee of public safety. These letters were answers to one written by the committee of safety to the Congress of the United States. The executive department being the organ throug

ndship between the two people. To evince the impression made on his mind by this act, and the grateful sense of his constituents, Mr. Monroe presented to the convention the flag of the United States, which he prayed them to accept

those sympathetic emotions with which the American people had viewed the vicissitudes of her fortune. Mr. Adet, who was to succeed Mr. Fauchet at Philadelphia, and who was the bearer of this letter, also brought with him the colors of France, w

reception, when the colors were delivered to Washington

that of the human race. "Assimilated to, or rather identified with, free people by the form of her government, she saw in them," he said, "only friends and brothers. Long accustomed to re

n without implying sentiments with respect to the belligerent powers which might be improper to be used by the

solicitude as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave were to pronounce but common praise. Wonderful people! ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits, I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended.

nd the issue of the French revolution, and they will certainly join with me in purest wishes to the Supreme Being that the citizens of our sister republic,

the United States. The transaction will be announced to Congress and the colors will be deposited with the archives of the United States, which are at once the evi

t, and the colors of France, were transmitted to Co

stimony of the existing sympathy and affections of the two republics; that the House rejoiced in an opportunity of congratulating the French republic on the brilliant and glorious achievements accomplished during t

he constitution declaring a treaty, when made, the supreme law of the land, the President announced it officially to the people in a p

merce was not a little dissatisfied at his venturing to issue this proclamation before the

ay before the House a copy of the instructions to the minister of the United States, who negotiated the treaty with the King of Great Bri

the words, "excepting such of the said papers as any ex

dvice and consent of the Senate, had a right to make, and that it was made when, by and with such advice and consent, it had received his final act. Its oblig

ress, or the assent and cooperation of the House of Representatives must be required to give validity to any compact, so far as it might comprehend those objects. A treaty, therefore, which required an appropriation of money, or any act of Congress to carry it into effect, had not acquire

til the 24th of March (1796), when the resolution was carried in the affirmative by sixty-two to thirty-seven votes. The next day, the comm

en strongly and generally excited. The popularity of a demand for information, the large majority by which that demand was supported, the additional force which a refusal to comply with it would give to suspicions already insinuated, that circumstances had

to the country. Hitherto, on more than one occasion, he had proved himself the defender of the constitutio

pers connected with a negotiation, was too apparent to be unobserved. Nor was it less obvious that a compliance with the request now made would go far in establishing this principle. The form of the request, and the motives which induced it, equally le

ich, in the judgment of the President, the constitution had denied them. Duties the most sacred requiring that he should resist this encroachment on the department which was particu

uctions to the minister of the United States, who negotiated the treaty with the King of Great Britain, together with the correspondence and

e principle which some have avowed in its discussion, or to avoid extending my

im by either House of Congress as a right, and with truth I affirm, that it has been, as it will continue to be, while I have the honor to preside in the government, my constant endeavor to harmonize with

een proposed or contemplated, would be extremely impolitic, for this might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations or produce immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief to other persons. The necessity of suc

d to have as a matter of course, all the papers respecting a negotiat

the resolution has not expressed. I repeat, that I have no disposition to withhold any information which the duty of my station will permit or the public good shall require to be disc

of the House, leads to some observations on the mode of m

ided two-thirds of the senators present concur, and that every treaty so made and promulgated, thenceforward becomes the law of the land. It is thus that the treaty-making power has been understood by foreign nations, and in all the treaties made with them, we have declared, and they have believed, that when ratified by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, they became obligatory. In

ted to it because there was not required, in commercial treaties, the consent of two-thirds of the whole number of the members of the Senate, instead of two-thirds of the senators present, and bec

And it is well known that under this influence the smaller States were admitted to an equal representation in the Senate with the larger States, and that this branch of the gove

in the journals of the general convention, which I have deposited in the office of the Department of State. In these journals it will appear that a prop

the objects requiring legislative provision-and on these the papers called for can throw no light, and as it is essential to the due administration of the government that the boundaries fixed by the constit

leaders of the opposition to Washington. Amidst all the agitations and irritations of party a sincere respect and real affection for him, the remnant of former friendship, had still lingered in the bosoms of

by a vote of fifty-seven to thirty-five, declaring the sense of the House on this matter, and claiming the right to delibera

by law for carrying into effect with good faith the treaties lately concluded with the Dey and Regency of Algiers, the King of Great Britain, the King of Spain, and certain Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio." After much altercation on the subje

ed into effect. The posts were to be delivered up on the 1st of June, and this required previous arrangements on the part of the American government. They appear to have entertained the opinion that the majority would not dare to encounter the immense resp

and zeal by both parties. Gallatin, Madison, Giles, Nicholas, Preston, and other eminent members of the republican party, in animated terms opposed the execution of the treaty and entered ful

arried for the avowed reason that it was not possible to decide calmly on the question until the members should have taken time for reflection. Reflection convinced not only the members of Congress, but the people, that the opposition to the execution of the treaty was ill advised an

and was determined by the casting vote of the chairman in its favor. The reso

demands upon the treasury that, after vainly endeavoring to obtain another loan, part of the bank stock was sold, a procedure which was reprobated by Hamilton as a violation of system. The opposition party would not agree to raise further revenue by indirect internal taxation, and only that augmenting the duty on pleasure carriages was passed into a law. Equally strenuous was their opposition to a naval force. Even under the pressure of the Algerine piracies, the bill providing a decent naval force in the Mediterranean could not be carr

atives respecting the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain took place and continued in one shape or another till the last of April, suspending in a manner all other business, and agitating the public mind in a higher degree than it has been at any period since the Revolution. And nothing, I believe, but t

in detail than I am able to do, I shall refer you to them. The enclosed speech, however, made by Mr. Ames at the close of the disc

sioned a longer delay than may have been convenient or agreeable to you. But as Mr. King of the Senate, who, it seems, had resolved to

nts. This circumstance, giving a poignancy to my own feelings, has induced me to go a step further than I did in the letter above mentioned, as you will perceive by the enclosed address (a copy of which is also transmitted for your information) to the Emperor of G

to be sent to Liverpool for the shipment of two sacks of field peas and the like quantity of winter vetches, which I had requested our consul at that place to send me for seed, but whic

Washington respecting him, thus describes his character: "Mr. King is a remarkably well-informed man, a very judicious one, a man of address, a man of fortune and economy, whose situation affords just ground of conf

months. He kept up a constant correspondence with his secretaries, and held himself e

en to Thomas Jefferson. It brought the correspondence, which, fr

RNON, Jul

ia and returned to this place before it was received by me, it will be admitted, I

truth is, I harbored none. I am at no loss to conjecture from what source they flowed, through what channel they were conveyed, and for what purpose they and similar publications appear. They were kno

ch friendly offices have embraced, without restraint, every opportunity to weaken the confidence of the people, and, by having the whole game in their hands, they have s

e to some other opinions all would be well. My answer invariably has been that I had never discovered anything in the conduct of Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his insincerity; that, if he would retrace my public conduct while he was in the administration, abundant proofs would occur to him that truth and right decisions were the sole objects of my pursuit;

ur own, independent, as far as our obligations and justice would permit, of every nation of the earth, and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve this country from the horrors of a desolating war, I should be accused of being the enemy of one nation and subject to the influence of another, and, to prove it, that every act of my administration would be

tion without treachery somewhere, Jefferson had written to Washington to exculpate himself. It will be seen that Washington, with his usual magnanimity, accepts the explanation of Jefferson; but, as the party of which the latt

the confidence of the nation from its chief, no one marked more strongly the depravity of that principle which justifies the means

terspersed, with domestic occurrences which might give them the semblance of veri

n which the possession of them was acquired, and, in executing this part of his task, circumstances

e drawn from the oblivion into which they had sunk, it had been supposed forever, and were republished as genuine. The silence with which Washington treated this as well as eve

l those measures which had been enjoined by the duties of neutrality, were reprobated as justly offensive to France, and no opinion which had been advanced by Mr. Genet, in his construction of the treaties between the two nations, was too extravagant to be approved. The most ardent patriot could not maintain the choicest

n of his government. But, misconceiving the views of the administration, he reserved these representations until complaints should be made, and omitted to urge them while the Directory was deliberating on the course it should pursue. Meanwhile, his letters kept up the alarm with regard to the dispositions of France, an

oduce no serious consequences if the proper means of prevention should be applied in time. He was therefore dissatisfied with delays which he had not expected, and seems to have believed that they originated in a want of zeal to justify a measure which neither the minister himself, nor his political friends, had ever approved. To insure an earnest and active representation of the true sentiments of the executive, Washington was inclined to depute an envoy extraordinary for the particular purpose, who should be united with the actual minister, but an

the early part of the French revolution, he had felt and expressed all the enthusiasm of his countrymen for the establishment of the republi

by a conviction that his exertions to effect the objects of his mission would be ardent and sincere, and that, whatever might be his partialities for France,

e American government in March, by M. de la Croix, the minister of exterior relations, with his answer to those complaints. He had effectually refuted the criminations of M.

etary of War, we find evidence of his attention to minute details of business, and his care of the public funds. In his letters of the 8th of August, we fin

tter of necessity, but the practice of the American army should be consulted for precedents, before the British allowance is made to the soldiers for cutting and transporting it to the fort, when the means by which it is done are furnished by the public. If no allowance of this sort has been made heretofore in towns, where wood was to be bought, which, if I remember rightly, was the case invariably while I commanded the army, it would be a dangerous innovation to begin it now, for it would instantly pervade all the garrisons and the whole army, be their situation what it may. In time of peace, w

ed to come to the United States. The letter was transmitted to Mr. Pinckney, to be conveyed to the Emperor through his minister at London.

Pinckney, Washington had offered it to Gen. John Marshall, afterward chief jus